JIMMY Shoulder, head of Sheffield Wednesday's Academy, has one of the most unenviable tasks in soccer as boss of the least successful international side in the United Kingdom.

Shoulder takes on his "second job" as manager of the Wales Under-21s tomorrow when they open their Uefa Championship qualifying campaign away to Finland in Valkeakoski.

Wales at this level have not won a game since March 1997, 24 matches ago, and in that time they have managed just four draws.

But Shoulder admits he would be more than happy with a similar success rate of producing star names from his new squad to that he has had in the past.

Shoulder points out: "From the last squad that everyone hammered for not winning came the likes of Craig Bellamy, Simon Davies, Matthew Jones, Danny Gabiddon, Robert Earnshaw and Rhys Weston. They are all now important members of the senior squad.

"I'd settle for that sort of production line from this new group of lads."

Shoulder has been responsible for only 15 of those 24 matches and his current new group of youngsters for this tournament can hardly be blamed for the faults of the past.

But that did not stop calls from Football Association of Wales councillors for Mark Hughes to sack Shoulder in the summer. Demands that were met with a flat refusal.

Shoulder said: "The one thing you can't do as a coach, a fan or a committee man is to go and play the game for them.

"We are a very small country with a very small group of players.

"We will do our best to be well prepared and have the right spirit. But this new group does give me confidence.

"It goes with the nature of the job that the coach gets stick when the team doesn't win. I'm in the firing line and I have no problems with that."

He added: " But I look upon the fact that the likes of Bellamy and Davies have all made it through from the last under-21 set-up into the senior squad as a success.

"It would certainly be nice to win more games because of the confidence that brings to the players.

"It's like being at a club. Everyone runs youth systems and have maybe 30 lads. Nobody expects them all to get through, the usual figure is about 10 per cent each year.

"So if we can keep pulling through from every under-21 cycle players of the quality of Bellamy, Davies and Jones, I will be very happy."

This current squad approaching their first game together has a dozen who are playing regular first-team football, including Gillingham's 20-year-old goalkeeping prospect Jason Brown, who has real promise and has already made a big impression on the First Division.

Shoulder said: "Only a handful have already got caps at this level, and those that have all came in late in the last competition. This is very much a new-look outfit.

"It's young, there's a couple of 18-year- olds, and Mark Jones, from Wrexham, is only 17."

And Wales have rounded up half-adozen new faces with dual qualifications, all of whom should be capped tomorrow.

Shoulder said: "There has been a concentrated search for new blood, and we've found it much easier to get boys involved this time, largely because of the success Mark Hughes has been having.

"The success that Mark has engineered with the first team and the fact that he has shown that he will put young players in has had an effect, no question.

"If our national first team is doing well, you find that there're a few more lads who want to be involved. I've heard that all around the English game. People with a family link with Wales start saying they want to be involved.

"Mark, and the efforts of the first team, must take a lot of the credit for us finding a few more `anglos' to put into the squad."